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Monday, March 21, 2011

I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

I don't remember where I saw this book listed, but it sounded good, wherever it was I heard about it, so I reserved it at the library. It took me a while to get to it, because I'm terribly busy at the moment (my usual book-reading evening time is currently occupied by lesson-planning for a church class I'm teaching, and boy #2 has decided that boy #1's naptime is a great time to be awake). So it pined away on my lamp stand, lost in a pile of lesson-planning materials and little-boy books for a couple of weeks or so, until I'd finally had enough of not reading, and I grabbed it and dived in, busyness be darned, knowing the due date was upon me.

I am so glad I made the time to read this sweet little book. I'm sure it spoke to me especially because it's about a girl who decides to get married at age 18, straight out of high school. I got married at 18 (though in my defense, I already had two years of college under my belt). So it struck a chord. Bronwen, the main character, is a little desperate to escape her broken family, and she falls totally in love with Jared, who comes from a happy, functional home. (More chords striking---minus the desperation part ... happy almost-seven-year anniversary, Honey! :) When Jared proposes, the prospect of marriage to him couldn't feel more right for Bronwen. But as she begins to acknowledge all of the sacrifices she'll have to make---the college roommates she'll never have, the study-abroad semester she won't be able to go on, and then even her college of choice she won't be able to attend---and when she realizes as the wedding draws nearer that "Bronwen" is dissolving into "Us," her perfect dream begins to crack, and only time, growth, and the long-needed support of her family will help her fit the pieces back together.

Such a good book, not least of all because this particular young woman decided to "wait" until marriage, and I think that's downright awesome. There are not many teen books out there with that kind of main character these days. Although, parents be warned, she and her fiance do some pretty heavy making out/necking/petting in one scene. Brief, and definitely not descriptive, but still there.